Active Non-player Characters

Games which make use of non-player characters that have a great deal of independence, often moving around and acting on their own, or taking the lead in conversation. Some of these are more successful than others, but all are likely to be interesting to people developing their own complex independent agents.

A detailed battle simulation with numerous soldiers fighting one another; the player can't really intervene in all this, only watch the battle unfold. A demonstration of TADS 3's reactive agent planner extension.

One character is randomly selected to be the murderer and moves around the house killing people; others are trying to solve a hunt for jewels, and carry out their search through semi-randomized goal-seeking. (Disclaimer: one of my own games.)

A number of different characters have extensive conversation and agendas to carry out. It's possible for the player to align himself with different ones, bringing about an assortment of possible endings.

Though the NPC behavior is often scripted rather than flexible, there is a great deal here to observe: characters who move around the game at different times, perform actions that can be spied on, etc.

Perhaps an odd choice for this list, but the characters in Rematch are able to accept and act on an unusually large selection of instructions, and thereby convey a fair amount of individual personality.

Arguably overkill on the independent actions scale: characters do something every turn (even if just to say "Hurry up" to the player, which can get a bit old). It's also easy for the other characters to kill off monsters, etc., before the player even encounters them. Still, interesting to look at in this context.

Not something I've played myself, but it has the reputation of being (like the Hobbit) long on independent NPC behavior.

21. Make It Goodby Jon Ingold(2009)Average member rating: (64 ratings)

Emily Short says:

Characters have memories, plans, and goals. You must manipulate them via your words and actions, and even the things you let them see you carrying. If you're not careful, one of them may take action against you, instead.

Characters talk and perform social actions based on the same social model that generates potential actions for the player. Built on the same system as Blood & Laurels, but with a less strong narrative structure and more freedom to wander from room to room.

Characters talk and perform social actions based on the same social model that generates potential actions for the player. Built on the same system as Blood & Laurels, but with an antagonist NPC modeled to move around invisibly and mess with the players' experience.